Memphis Democrat
January 23, 2003

Last week I wished for snow, and it arrived! Which meant most of us got outside and cross country skied, sledded or ice skated. Some of us, including me, did all three! It's been fun to get the opportunity to act like kids again for a few hours, playing in the snow and following animal tracks.

When people visit us in the summer, they often ask what we do during the winter. Besides winter sports, we stay pretty busy. We do a lot of planning (both of infrastructure and policies), making decisions and assessing our progress. We also keep doing construction, outside when the weather permits and inside when it doesn't. For example, last week Erik built a pantry into his and Susan's house, and then Susan stocked it. When the weather isn't nice enough to work on the porch on Skyhouse, the crew moves inside to put up trim and hang doors. I am, of course, busy with my studies at Truman State University. People also relax more, catching up on their reading and correspondence after the hectic summer. There are frequent movie nights, especially now that there are two dvd players on the farm. Many of us also take advantage of the slower pace to visit our friends and family, which are scattered all over the country.

Therefore, we're especially lucky to have nearly everyone home at the same time right now. Stephanie is visiting her friends in Portland and Alline is leading a backpacking trip in Hawaii. But both return soon and then we will all be here for a little while.

This week has been a little less productive than usual because there's a cold going around that really knocks people out. We take turns caring for the sick and praying we don't catch it ourselves.

We share only three cars between the 18 of us, to encourage us to carpool. As the guys at the Rutledge Garage can tell you, nearly always at least one of them is in the shop. But sometimes, there's nowhere anyone needs to go. This week all three cars are waiting patiently in the parking lot almost the entire week.

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